From bad to worse...

gravitytolls

If you can't afford the maintenance at the mno, regardless of what the ex says, you may just have to bite the bullet until such a time as circumstances improve.

Would she really stop you seeing the children? Does it not give her a break? Were you to call her bluff, would she back down after a couple of weeks when she realises you seriously can't meet the commitment NOW?

dancingfairy

Listen - you are currently sinking by 550 a month and that's BEFORE tax repayment and council tax repayment. You need to take drastic action otherwise you will be bankrupt and not have any money to pay CSA to the kids mother.
You need to seriously,seriously do the maths and work out if it pays to work. You can shave a serious amount off the mobiles - ditch all but what is essential - if it means you and your OH have 10 a month PAYG then so be it. Mobile debts may have to go into a dmp.
Gas and Electric you need to seriously look at switching and putting the debt into your dmp.
Childcare - this needs to be looked at with regard to how much you are bringing home - the need to run the extra car, the extra fuel etc it's costing you, extra benefits you may be entitled to.
Child Maintenance - you just can't afford it.
HP debts - what's this - you really don't seem to be able to afford this right now.
NOW you may not have to make all these cuts but you do need to do something othersie you will go bankrupt and loose a lot.
df

RAS

dancingfairy wrote: »

Child Maintenance - you just can't afford it.

Agree with most of DF's comment BUT the ex is entitled to a fair bit from OH's salary. Basically take off 15% to contribute towards your child, then take 20 percent of what is left. I make that £238 but could be wrong.

WARNING - if you get tax credits, these can be used to increase his income and she gets 20 percent of them. Please go over to the Child Support forum and ask about this before you go any further.

dancingfairy

Sorry - I should have said - you can't afford it at that level along with everything else you are paying out for. Clearly you have a minimum obligation though as RAS says.
df

poppy10_2

How long do you have left on your mobile phone contracts? You're spending even more on them now then when you posted your previous SoA in July last year. In fact your overall outgoings are almost £800pcm more than last year, even though your joint income has actually gone down a little, although I assume the bulk of that increase is from the childcare costs. Any chance you could cancel the Sky and get out of the mobile phone contracts?

helena83

I've spoken to orange regarding the mobile contracts. They will reduce mine by a wopping £5 per month and thats it. They won't do anything else until we are actually in arrears on the account. Looks like we might have to just stop paying and put it into the DMP and go on PAYG phones.

Dancingfairy - the HP is on OH's car. We looked at selling the car but the HP is more than the car is worth so we wouldn't be able to clear it. We are looking at getting rid of my car which would save 38pm car insurance, 30pm fuel and one lot of car tax.

Sky and lovefilm are being cancelled.

Is the CSA money based just on OH income or is it our joint income? If its just OH then it comes down to £54 per week.

On the positive side, looks like he will be able to work quite a few more hours as of feb so he should be able to increase his income quite a bit and my income doesn't change til the end of march.

I'm going to work out a few different scenarios and look at whether its worth going back to work or not.

RAS

You need to read this thread and get some help working out how much this will affect your situation https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2926934

dizzypink

I've spoken to orange regarding the mobile contracts. They will reduce mine by a wopping £5 per month and thats it. They won't do anything else until we are actually in arrears on the account. Looks like we might have to just stop paying and put it into the DMP and go on PAYG phones.

Hi Helena83. We were in a similiar situation with mobile phones. We had 3, 2 of which were for my teenage kids who kept running up bills over the agreed credit limit. When I phoned them up to cancel the girl in the contact centre just kept saying no. After half an hour she finally put me through to her manager. After crying on the phone for another half an hour explaining there was no way I could afford this they agreed to cancel.

I think we may have been closer to the end of contract than yours is but it has to be worth a try. As an ex call centre worker I know they are trained to repeat a script. If you challenge them and keep repeating your argument theres a chance at least they might say yes.

Goodluck

Dizzy

lvm

Sorry if this has already been said:

TV - you say you're on a basic package for £24 per month - just cancel it and get freeview.

Do your OH's kids come to stay with you sometimes? If not, do you actually need a 3 bed house if it's just the 2 of you and child. I know you say you have no money for moving costs but could you not get rid of your current tenants and move into that property yourself? Then at least you still own property and wouldn't have to start from scratch when you do decide to own somewhere again.

Sorry if this has already been said! x

sp1987

helena83 wrote: »

OK, so here is my SOA. I'm terrified now!

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 2
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 970
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1400
Benefits................................ 180
Other income............................ 350
Total monthly income.................... 2900
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 460
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 137
Rent.................................... 700 (pretty standard for 3 bed house in this area plus cant raise deposit/moving costs anyway)
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 153
Electricity............................. 35
Gas..................................... 55 (would look into switching but have £200 outstanding which we can't clear, BG won't reduce dd's by any more)
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 26
Telephone (land line)................... 24
Mobile phone............................ [STRIKE]135 (massive I know, 3 phones still in contracts - any advice greatly appreciated!)[/STRIKE] £20 payg
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... [STRIKE]24 (on basic package now I think)[/STRIKE] 0
Internet Services....................... 15
Groceries etc. ......................... [STRIKE]260[/STRIKE] £250
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 350 (Travel to work and picking up kids from their mum every other weekend) Probably some scope to save a little on this, even driving at 50-56mph most of the time to save fuel or using the more economic car.
Road tax................................ 12
Car Insurance........................... 106 (2x insurance and AA)AA can be cancelled or only one policy. You dont have the funds for it, sadly. Same as 1x insurance and car
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 500 (approx)
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 12
Contents insurance...................... 18
Life assurance ......................... 12
Other insurance......................... [STRIKE]20 (homecare)[/STRIKE] 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Lovefilm subscription................... [STRIKE]10[/STRIKE]
Child Maintenance....................... 350
Total monthly expenses.................. 3446

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 90000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 3000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 93000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 72000....(460)......4.5
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 4500.....(137)......0 Hand back. You can't afford £137 a month on a car when you have a non-financed one to use. There will be more owed than it is worth for a LONG time due to the balance. You can't cope that long.

Total secured & HP debts...... 76500.....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
DMP............................15000.....180.......0
council tax arrears............120.......60........0
tax bill.......................210.......20........0
Total unsecured debts..........15330.....260.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,900
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 3,446
Available for debt repayments........... -546
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 260
Amount short for making debt repayments. -806
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 93,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -76,500
Total Unsecured debt.................... -15,330
Net Assets.............................. 1,170
Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using IE browser.

Losing; 24 sky + 115 phones + 10 groceries (that should be quite easily done as it isn't too rash a start, just bulking out meals or drinking tap water would cover that for you) + 137 hp + 20 homecare = £306 saving.

+?? aa membership + ?? insurance (x 1 at the very least with 1 car) + going onto the cheapest broadband and home phone available (I pay £17 for o2 bb and line rental included). You pay £39 all in for phone and broadband. You are just spending double what you need to in many, many ways. Honestly, when I saw the gas and electric (although a bit high due to arrears) it certainly wasn't where I concentrated my thoughts of 'that can lose a few quid no trouble'. Though as you have combined electric and gas you could probably cut electric down to say £32 by switching off appliances/not having sky so not being fussed touching the tv.

Your problems are not your debts, it is your excessive spending. Some of the figures shocked me. Your soa is in trouble even if you had no debts at all. That HP car needs to go as you are essentially paying the payments with credit anyway, you may aswell not pay them and have it as a debt you can make payments on when you can. You have another car too, so it isn't a life of walking.

Can you sell anything e.g. on ebay (baby clothes that are too small, other baby equipment?) that would help reduce your British gas arrears or put towards living costs.

Sorry to be a bit down on it but salarywise you are fine. Outgoing wise is your problem. You have a headstart on many insofaras the money coming in will support a family to live, even with CM payments. Your rent is too high (ok you can't afford to move but can you afford not to move?) Your partner seems to be having a minor disagreement with reality too if he thinks your income is over £3000. Is he clear on what actually comes in now? If not show him because he is happily spending the non existant hundreds of pounds.